Global Identity, Japanese Identity: Japanese University Students’ Sense of their ‘Own Culture’

Educational systems and employers worldwide value the ability to interact across cultures. In Japan, the term ‘global human resources’ has gained currency since a 2010 government report. In addition to basic working competencies and foreign language proficiency, the report calls for workers who understand cultural difference and can work flexibly with others.

This move stems from a sense of crisis over Japan’s falling global competitiveness, a decline in the number of Japanese looking to study or work abroad, and an intractable demographic crisis necessitating a more diverse Japanese working population. Given these pragmatic origins, government materials stress sense of identity as a Japanese, rather than calling for a profound shift in Japanese people’s worldview.

Language learning implies a reorientation of the self in relation to an ‘other’, and this can function as a powerful motivation to integrate to a target culture, consume overseas culture or be active internationally. Through comparison with other cultures and reflection on their own, learners come to better understand themselves and their own culture.

Based on mixed methods research at a Japanese university, this presentation will consider student perceptions of their own culture and identity. It will consider the extent to which student self-image is recognizably ‘Japanese’, ‘Asian’, ‘international’, and how well students’ self-images accord with the privileged definition of ‘global human resources’ in Japan. I will conclude by considering to what extent the study of English and culture in Japan confers a sense of community and promotes active engagement cognitively and socially.